1. Skyward Sword - Not just my favorite Zelda game, but my favorite game. Period. Everything about this, except for some padding - I just love. The music, the atmosphere, the story, the motion controls (I actually LIKE motion controls believe it or not.), the cast of characters, everything. If I had to pick one video game, as of this moment. Hold a gun to my head and say "Pick one to play for the rest of your life" it'd be this one!

2. Twilight Princess - After beating Wind Waker and greatly enjoying what I played, I was convinced to give this series a real, serious shot. So this was the next game I picked up, and this was the game that officially sealed to deal for me and made me the Legend of Zelda fan I am today! I love the combat, the story, the overworld. Midna is fantastic in every sense of the word!

3. Majora's Mask - The odd ball of the series. To say this game is fucking weird is an understatement. Holy Mother of God, some of the shit in this game is just down right frightening! The stuff of nightmares. But the sidequests, the NPCs, who are the greatest cast of characters in a Zelda game, in my view. To this day, Termina is my absolute favorite overworld/hub world in Zelda games, and it's not even close! The 4 Dungeons are challenging but fair and don't drag too long (except the Great Bay Temple. FUCK the Great Bay Temple!) All of the different variations and abilities that you can do with the Deku, Goron, and Zora masks are awesome! In terms of gameplay and abilities, Majora's Mask Link is my favorite incarnation!

4. A Link Between Worlds - Ah, some 2D love! A fantastic game in every category. Something that I have no issue with picking up and playing and is the definitive 2D Zelda in my view.

5. Wind Waker - The one that started it all for me! Gorgeous art style that still looks great today even on the GameCube! I can listen to Dragon Roost Island's theme all day! My favorite theme in the entire Zelda series! The dungeons were good. Wind Waker Link is probably my favorite incarnation in terms of personality and character. Love that charming, cute little guy! And I love me some Tetra. And I always laugh when I see King Daphnes and I can't help but think "MAH BOIIII!"

Come to think of it, I don't believe I've even PLAYED 5 Zelda games, unless you count Crossbow training heh. Always been much more of a Mario fan than a Zelda one, and I was sorta late jumping on board with the Zelda series. So I'll rank the ones I did play..

1. Zelda TP - Engrossing, all around fun game. Epic, cinematic quality, nice balance of linearity and open world.

2. NES Zelda - Love the fast paced, openworld experience. Played it for the first time in 2006 alongside Zelda TP and it still held up as being one of the most fun games I played on Wii even in comparison to the modern games at the time.

3. Link to the Past - Had the NES Zelda feel somewhat but prettied up and a toned down the brutal difficulty. The dark world was pretty sweet too.

4. Wind Waker - Even though this esentially makes the list by default, I DO have some sentimental value with this one because it was actually the first Zelda game I ever played back in '02 or whenever it came out.

5. Crossbow Training? Yeah.. more as a filler for the 5th spot. Luckilly this will change within the next few weeks or so :P

#5 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
First game in the series I played, and one of the first games in general. An excellent choice, and it proved very important to my development as a gamer and for a time this was my favorite game of all time. The game itself is as excellent as it gets; being the starting-point of much of the series' lore with a simple yet epic and classic storyline, a large amount of great dungeons and equal bosses, an interesting world and perfect balance of difficulty.

#4 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The perfect follow-up to Ocarina of Time. An odd entry into the series, featuring a story that goes deeper than any other in the series if you care to look for it. The repeating three days make an interesting gameplay element. It all combines into a wonderful world full of emotion. The game has a great antagonist and one of the series' best soundtracks, but barring a few exceptions it's sadly weak in dungeons and bosses.

#3 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The game is often criticized for playing it safe, but his is hardly a problem for me. In many ways it's the opposite of Majora's Mask. It does feature a handful of cool characters, but the story, emotional depth and wordbuilding take a bit of a back-seat for the most part. It's dungeons and bosses though are with few exceptions, excellent. The game features some of the best level-design I have ever seen.

#2 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
A flawless game, the best handheld game ever made, and one that seems impossible on the system it's on. It's big, has a deep story that ends bittersweet, has great dungeons and bosses and overall has an excellent difficulty curve. It's sadly underrated and overlooked, but this game actually is the origin of many of the series' mainstays and even outdoes it's brother on consoles, A Link to the Past (of which this is the sequel), in many ways.

#1 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The quintessential Zelda game, and my favorite game of all-time. This game wins, because it does everything right. It has a classic, engaging story told masterfully cinematic in it's cutscenes, it's soundtrack is excellent and memorable, it has a big and varied world bustling with activity and secrets and it's dungeons and bosses are among the best. It features my favorite dungeon. The game features some of the most epic moments in videogaming. And that's talking about my own feelings, and not even talking about the huge impact it had on the gaming industry and the legacy it rightfully deserved. To me, for all intents and purposes, this is a perfect game.

I've played and completed them all with the exception of Four Swords Adventures, favorite series and everything, and can't wait to play Breath of the Wild. It seems like it's going to do a lot of things right, and really seems like a real follow-up to the original game. I'm interested to see if it'll break into my longstanding top 5, or maybe even my top 3!

Because why not, here's the rest of the games ranked according to me;

6. Skyward Sword, 7. A Link Between Worlds, 8. The Legend of Zelda NES, 9. The Wind Waker, 10. Spirit Tracks, 11. Oracle of Ages, 12. Oracle of Seasons, 13. The Adventure of Link, 14. The Minish Cap, 15. Phantom Hourglass, 16. Four Swords, 17. Triforce Heroes.

1. The Wind Waker
- Beautiful and immese world, got lost for dozens of hours exploring the sea
2. A Link to the Past
- Best gameplay in the series I think, fast and snappy
3. A Link Between Worlds
- New ability and freedom makes this one a lot of fun
4. Ocarina of Time
- Solid progression and interesting dungeons
5. The Legend of Zelda
- Oldie but a goodie, a bit difficult but it hits the right notes

Hmmm.

1. Ocarina of Time (Great story. What it did technically was mind blowing at the time. Has aged very well, imo. But most of all, first Zelda, so it's nostalgia and the wonder I got from it just have it put up on such a pedistool that I can't see any game ever beating it.)
2. Wind Waker (Brought emotions to the characters in their goofy faces. The wonder of sailing the world. such a unique art style.)
3. A Link Between Worlds (very creative use of the whole paper on teh wall. Unique twist on having all items instantly, even though not a fan of how you got them. Good story. Best controls on handheld. A sort of 3d/2d mix of art style. Better than the PH/ST style)
4. Twilight Princess (felt like a continuation of Wind Waker. World felt massive. Had a similar feeling again when first entering Hyrule Feild as you did in Ocarina. really epic final ending boss fight, as well as many epic boss fights. Great story)
5. Majora's Mask (Very unique twist on series. SIde Quests are amazing and galore. Basically the game is about side quests. The repeat days things was cool, seeing how much you could do in a day and hw you barely manage to do one thing one day yet by the end your dong all the temples and so on in that time.)

Skyward Sword would probably be 2nd if not for two things.
1. The stupid repetitive fight against the imprisoned
2. The insanely annoying Fi's explanations (she had to explain everything and I mean everything in the game, and always seems to ask if you wanted to hear it again. Makes replay ability like zero)

1. Twilight Princess
2. A Link to the Past
3. Ocarina of Time (3DS-version)
4. A Link Between Worlds
5. The Wind Waker

1 - Ocarina of Time (I've been told I'm not a real Zelda fan because I consider this my favorite title)...
2 - Twilight Princess (I know I'm in the minority, but I actually enjoy the wolf segments)...
3 - Link Between Worlds (the wall mechanics are great, as is the soundtrack)...
4 - Link's Awakening (I like the ways in which it dared to be different)...
5 - Majora's Mask, it took me a decade to truly appreciate this game)...
Honorable mentions to Windwaker (which come tomorrow might actually be in my top five), Phantom Hourglass, and Zelda and Zelda 2...

I just give my favorite:

1. Link's awakening

A masterpiece that used every resource of the old Gameboy and brought a different story to the genre, that used the same tired formula of "some evil enemy" too often.

When I heard that BotW has another Ganon-theme I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of creativity.

1. The Wind Waker
2. A Link Between Worlds
3. Skyward Sword
4. Twilight Princess
5. A Link to the Past (will go up when I beat the game)

5. Twilight Princess/Wind Waker
4. Spirit Tracks
3. Majora's Mask 3D
2. Link to the Past
1. Link's Awakening